Posts tagged: omark

Wow, so Linus Omark has re-signed with the Oilers after discovering that the Swiss League teams are even bigger chumps than the chumps keeping him out of the line up here.

You know, I don’t care about the past. Some would say he squandered his opportunity. Some would say he didn’t get an opportunity. All I know is that he’s got to be damn humble now, and there SHOULD be an opportunity for him now under a new coach and with piss poor alternatives in the bottom six. He’ll start in the AHL, I’m sure, unless he busts his balls right out of camp and impresses fitness master Dallas Eakins. This seems like an unlikely scenario, but who knows. My question is… what have we got to lose?

Next question would be… would you consider him ahead of Rajala who just got tossed away to Europe? Hard to say. Omark has NHL games, Rajala does not. Omark is small, but Rajala makes Omark look like Lou Ferrigno. I was never totally sold on Omark making the NHL, but I was never completely sold on him not making it either. Actually, I’d say I figured he’d make it somewhere else, like in Detroit. So here it is, round 2… let’s see what he can do and leave the past in the past. As Oilers fans, most are going to jump all over him and remind him how humble he should be, but as far as I’m concerned, it can’t be easy crawling back to a place that cast you aside. That’s half the battle. The other half will be seen on ice, so I’ll give him the opportunity to show if he’s learned anything. I don’t consider the Swiss League to be all that top of a league, but at least he came out on top of it (#1 in points last year).

Now, say he makes the line up.. where do you see him fitting? It’s hard to really see him fitting anywhere, but I’m trying to humor the idea. Could he fit with Gordon and Hemsky? Will he be hidden on a 4th line? I am having a tough job figuring out how he fits, at least until an injury happens.

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This shouldn’t come as any surprise that Linus Omark wants out. He sees what Edmonton is bringing in, and he sees he isn’t likely part of the plan. But I think he’s handling it all wrong. For the love of god, close your Twitter account. Anyways, here is the most recent quote:

I’d (love) to show that the “two” are wrong. but i really hope edm let me have a chance in another nhl team

I am not 100% sure what the “two” part means. Could mean a combination of Steve Tambellini, Tom Renney and Kevin Lowe. Or it could mean a couple people that were ragging on him on Twitter.

At any rate, he obviously doesn’t want to be here, and the Oilers need to find him a new home.

Being on Twitter wouldn’t have helped any, but the guy really should have ignored comments from fans. A lot of negative comments get sent to everyone, not just the divas. He’s been taking a beating on Twitter though, and I think he’s had enough. But really, he didn’t stand a chance here. The game is played on the rink, not Twitter. Got to learn to ignore that stuff and not fuel things any more. We are accustomed to players forcing their way out of here. I wish people would just keep their mouth shut and request it with the GM and be done with it. But oh well. Best of luck somewhere else. Not my kind of player. Too much drama around this fellow. Could be a decent player one day though.

PRE-GAME RANT

So this game of course marks the debut of another highlty-touted prospect – Linus Omark. Both Omark and Ryan O’Marra were recalled from Oklahoma City on Wednedsay, as replacements for the injured Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff.

We all know Omark from his youtube videos and even a bit this year from camp where he scored quite a pretty goal on a nice individual effort. But the question mark for him has been whether he plays for himself or for the team, so hopefully he’s learned the right answer to that question in Oklahoma City. He’s been tearing it up down there though. He’s on a point-per-game pace so far with 26 points in 26 games, and an even balance of 13 goals and 13 assists. The highlight of his North American professional career came on November 7th, 2010 in an AHL game between the Oklahoma City Barons and the Toronto Marlies. Omark led the Barons to a 7-6 victory by scoring 5 goals in the game (including a goal that tied the game at 6 with under a minute left to force the game to overtime).

O’Marra is also having a good start to his year in Oklahoma City. The big, 6’2″, 200 lb. center has 14 points in 22 games so far (1G and 13A). This isn’t his first trip to the show, however. O’Marra played 3 games last year for the Oilers in which he notched 1 assist. He only took 12 draws, but won 7 of them (58.3%). I thought he played pretty good. It’s nice seeing a big pivot on our team, for once. So I’m a bit excited to see how well he can mesh with the team too. He will likely play with Omark and Jones, if yesterday’s practice lines hold up.

Stamkos has cooled off temporarily, it would seem. He has 2 points in his last 6 games, both were assists (let’s not even talk about the games before – not pretty unless you love the Lightning or goal scoring). Even though I have him in one of the POTF pools, I’m hoping he stays cold tonight. The Lightning are still fairing OK, being 6-3-1 in their last 10. The Oilers have been pretty solid in their last 10 too, with a 6-2-2 record (wowza).

Starting goaltenders tonight appear to be Khabibulin and Ellis. The Lightning like to score goals, and Ellis apparently seems to like letting them in (dropped him like a bad habit in the pool), so I suspect this SHOULD be one of the more exciting games we’ll see this year.

“I’m not sure he shoots the puck, but he dekes the hell out of it. He has great hands and is very, very quick and has some explosiveness to his game. First time I’ve seen him live, and he is going to make it very interesting, and I like his battle level. He is a case in point to the interpretation of what I’m giving the players might be lost a little bit in translation, because he was the first forechecker on just about every drill and that wasn’t necessarily his need, but we like him.”

Very pleasing to hear… hopefully he gets an extended look. Bear in mind, today Omark was put with Jones and Fraser to test his ability to cycle. Sounds like he past at least the initial test.

I did a bit of quick research because I’m interested in the question of “should you put kids into winning situations” (i.e. wait until your team is good before introducing the rookies) or do you throw them in the water and see if they sink or swim.

Now before people get too excited, I obviously don’t expect that this team in Edmonton is a winning team yet. That is NOT my argument. I think there is a very good chance that this team is going to be a lottery team, yet again, if enough things go wrong. If enough things go right, I still think there is a good chance we miss the playoffs. My entire argument in all of this is whether this environment is the right environment for the kids or not.

However, it is interesting to see how the supposed masters of the rebuild handled their rookies:

Team Rebuild Examples

The Chicago Blackhawks…

Previous to Kane and Toews’ first years, the Blackhawks were out for 4 straight out of playoffs.

In 2007, Patrick Kane was drafted 1st overall by the Hawks, and injected into the team immediately, along with Jonathan Toews (drafted 3rd overall the previous year). This was in addition to youngsters Duncan Keith (then 23 with 1 year of NHL experience under his belt), and Brent Seabrook (then 22 with 2 years of NHL experience).

Once they had the core group of these 4 players, they played a year together in which they did not make the playoffs (ironically finishing tied in points with the Oilers, just barely out of a playoff spot). The next year they went on to finish with a remarkable 104 points and lost in round 3 of the playoffs. The following year (last year), they finished 2nd in the conference, 1 point behind San Jose, and of course won the cup.

The Pittsburgh Penguins…

Previous to Sid the Kid being drafted, the Penguins missed 3 straight years of playoffs action (but actually had not too bad a run before that, all things considered).

When Crosby was drafted in 2005, like Patrick Kane, he was also immediately inserted into the NHL. At this time, Marc-Andre Fleury (then 20/21) and Ryan Whitney (then 22) were also breaking into the NHL (note: Fleury had already played 22 games before this though). In this year, the Penguins missed the playoffs, finishing dead last in their conference and 2nd last in the league.

The following year, 20-year old, 2004 #2 pick Evgeni Malkin came over from Russia to join the crew, as did yet another youngster, their draft pick from that year – Jordan Staal. This year with this core group of 4, the Penguins made it to the playoffs, but lost out in round 1. However, they did finish the regular season with a very respectable 105 points.

The following year, the group made it to the finals. And the year after (08/09), the Penguins won the cup.

The Washington capitals…

Previous to Alexander Ovechkin playing for the caps, the Capitals were out of the playoffs or loast in the 1st round for the past 6 years.

Once Ovechkin was drafted, he of course had to wait a year due to the lockout before he could play NHL hockey (but let’s face it… this guy was going straight into the show). In Ovechkin’s draft year, the Capitals were also lucky enough to draft Mike Greene. The Capitals however didn’t have the same draft luck that other tank-teams have had, and hadn’t amassed a group of budding superstars by the time Ovechkin was ready to go. In fact, by the time he was ready to go, this team appeared to still be in tank mode… refusing to complement their superstar with players of good caliber.

However, the following year (06/07), 2002 1st rounder Alex Semin decided to make his NHL debut (surprise, surprise). Aside from the trio of Greene, Ovechkin and Semin, the Caps seemed to be organizing a group of surrounding players with a little less flair, and perhaps more of what Quinn refers to as jam. In this year with this trio, the caps finished out of the playoffs again. I think they had a good one-two punch of Ovechkin and Semin (and they looked good on the PP together), but they didn’t really have enough around them, I would say.

The following 3 years, the caps have made the playoffs, but struggled to get too far. They’ve had some tough opponents eliminate them though, such as the Stanley cup winner the one year (08/09), as well as a Montreal Canadiens last year that was just absolutely stellar in the playoffs. The Capitals also did win the league’s Presidents trophy last year by a pretty safe margin. So things are looking up for the Capitals.

Well, due to length of this post, I cut it short, but it would be good to also include Phoenix and Colorado, perhaps, as other examples. But I think with the teams above, while they definitely had some good surrounding players (a KEY for us too), we can say that handing the reigns over the young kids did them all some good.

1st overall examples

So, on the note of Taylor Hall alone, Steve-O was going to compile some reasons as to why 1st overall picks shouldn’t be brought into the league right away. Not knowing the answer, I “helpfully” suggested researching way back to see how many 1st overall picks played in the NHL full time for their draft year. And well, much to our surprises, it was pretty overwhelming… especially for forwards.

Draft Year

Player

Position

Next Season in NHL?

first year stats GP-G-A-P (year if not the next)

2010

Hall

F

NA

NA

2009

Tavares

F

Y

82-24-30-54

2008

Stamkos

F

Y

79-23-23-46

2007

Kane

F

Y

82-21-51-72

2006

E. Johnson

D

N

69-5-28-33 (07-08)

2005

Crosby

F

Y

81-39-63-102

2004

Ovechkin

F

N (Lockout)

81-52-54-106 (05-06)

2003

Fleury

G

Y (but then sent to Q followed by 3 years of AHL)

22-3.64-0.896

2002

Nash

F

Y

74-17-22-39

2001

Kovalchuk

F

Y

65-29-22-51

2000

DiPietro

G

Y (but then sent to ihl, then 3 years in and out of the AHL)

20-3.49-0.878

1999

Stefan

F

Y

72-5-20-25

1998

Lecavalier

F

Y

82-13-15-28

1997

Thornton

F

Y

55-3-4-7

1996

Phillips

D

N

72-5-11-16 (97-98)

1995

Berard

D

N

82-8-40-48 (96-97)

1994

Jovanovski

D

N

70-10-11-21 (95-96)

1993

Daigle

F

Y

84-20-31-51

1992

Hamrlik

D

Y

67-6-15-21

1991

Lindros

F

N (Held out…dick)

61-41-34-75 (92-93)

1990

Nolan

F

Y (6 games in the AHL)

59-3-10-13

1989

Sundin

F

N

80-23-36-59 (90-91)

1988

Modano

F

N (2 playoff games though)

80-29-46-75 (89-90)

1987

Turgeon

F

Y

76-14-28-42

1986

Murphy

F

N (5 games)

50-10-9-19 (87-88)

1985

Clark

F

Y

66-34-11-45

1984

Lemieux

F

Y

73-43-57-100

1983

Lawton

F

Y

58-10-21-31

1982

Kluzak

D

Y

70-1-6-7

1981

Hawerchuk

F

Y

80-45-58-103

1980

Wickenheiser

F

Y

41-7-8-15

* – thanks Steve-O for the fine table above.

As a quick summary, of the forwards listed.. 20 forwards had opportunity to play in the NHL in their first year. Ovechkin I’ve counted out of this due to the lockout, and Lindros as well, since his stupid ass refused to play for the Nordiques (therefore he went to junior). Well, 17 of those 20 players debuted in the NHL for their draft year. Of those draftees, I’m going to make a subjective opinion here and say that only Daigle and Stefan are the more modern era players that didn’t work out. It could have been to being rushed.. possibly. Or it could just have been that they weren’t very good players. But really, for the remainder of those players to go on to have pretty good careers, says a lot. Of the guys that DIDN’T play in their first year, we have Mats Sundin, Mike Modano and Joe Murphy. I would say that for Sundin and Modano especially, they did have pretty strong careers. However I think the evidence suggests that playing these other guys in the NHL for their draft year didn’t result in these players turning into bad players. They may not all have had great years in year 1, but they all seem to have had some great years over their careers.

So with this table of the 1st overall picks, and my post on the big re-build.. what am I getting at? Well, while I think it’s optimistic to compare to any of these teams, I just wanted to point out that these rookies did each go through a year or two of non-playoff hockey and suffer their own bit of growing pains early on. So it isn’t necessarily so true, the school of thought that “if we’re going to lose anyways, we should just send these guys to development teams (AHL/CHL/College)”. These players got a team handed to them that was climbing out of the ashes, and they helped make them the teams they are today. You might even say, you have to taste rock bottom to really appreciate what the top feels like.

I know I’ll take some heat because it’s Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, and Toews, and you just don’t compare players to them… but I think that there are still comparisons between the Oilers and these teams. We’ve got our young core of Gagner, Eberle, MPS, and Hall for forwards that are developing (also Omark and Rajala are considerations for skilled forwards). For existing NHL skill players, we have Penner and Hemsky. For guys that are uncertain, but have potential, we have Cogliano and Brule. We’ve got a solid NHL defensive group in Whitney, Gilbert, Smid and Foster. Plus we still have Petry, Plante, Chorney, Belle (arguably) in development. In net, this is perhaps our bleakest, at least in the present. We have JDD and Dubnyk who are big question marks, and of course that veteran, oft-injured, soon to be prisoner, Khabibulin. But in the future, we can look forward to Olivier Roy and possibly Tyler Bunz. Add Martin Gerber as a bit of a question mark, as it’s uncertain where he’ll be yet.

Really, aside from goaltending, I’m going to say it… I think the group we have is incredibly enviable. Teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh definitely had the higher end players, but I think we do have a pretty deep talent pool to choose from. For all we know, MPS really is Forsberg 2.0 and Hall is Patrick Kane, and Eberle is all he’s cracked up to be too. This all remains to be seen. Of course they could go the other direction, but we have a bit of a comfort zone in that if one or two don’t work out, we still have one or two prospects that could surprise in Rajala and Omark.

We’ve paid our dues, going through 4 straight years with no playoff hockey. This, like the other teams mentioned above, has given us ample time to build up a solid prospect base and future for the team.

Oh and Steve-O would like to say something… “there you have it…apparently I’m wrong. Or at least have nothing to go on.” He does however feel that Taylor Hall should go back to junior, and was one of few people that can legitimately say that in 2006, they wanted Sam Gagner to go back to Junior. He also feels that being rushed into the NHL hurt Sam Gagner’s development.

For me, I don’t think it helped in fast tracking him in, but I think we’ll see a new Gagner soon… things might have gotten off to a bad start, but that guy we thought we drafted will come out soon.

Conclusion

Anyways, to sum up…. I think we should play Hall, for SURE this year now. As for MPS, Eberle, and Omark… there are arguments there either way. I think it would be good to have at least one of them up here. I think pairing Hall up with another young kid, be it Gagner, Eberle, MPS or another, would be wise too. It’ll build some chemistry now. That said, they’d probably need the cherry minutes not to leak goals and have their ego’s destroyed.

But really, most of all, while I hate to fuel optimism too much, I think we really do have the building blocks for a very good team in the future. Next year I do predict a pretty poor year. But that will just add one more piece (perhaps a great D-man or another goaltender?) to an already great looking future competitor.

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